Edmonton Oilers history: New York Islanders sweep their way to fourth consecutive Stanley Cup title, May 17, 1983

1983: Mike Bossy scores the game-winning goal midway through the first period as the New York Islanders beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 to win the Stanley Cup final in four straight games. It’s the Islanders’ fourth consecutive Cup title.

1983: The matchup was the stuff of dreams. But it became a technicolor nightmare for Edmonton Oilers. The New York Islanders turned the Stanley Cup final into a horror show in Game 4 with three goals in 97 seconds before most of 15,317 fans at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., had sucked back their beer or popcorn.

And, while the suspense hung like the jury here until the final reel. the Islanders escaped with a 4-2 victory, sweeping Canada’s team in four straight.

With the latest conquest, the Isles, who seem to feel they get no respect. have whined and dined their way through 16 straight opponents to their fourth Cup in as many years.

“I said before the series,” said Isles winger Bob Bourne, runner-up for the Conn Smythe Trophy, “that this would be our sweetest victory if we won. The Oilers are a super team, but from the people talking during the winter, it was like we had no chance at all. I remember talking to a TV guy in Canada and him telling me there was no team today that could beat the Oilers. What could I say?

“The Oilers, they scared the hell out of us. They’ll win the Cup soon. I hope it’s not true, for our sake, but maybe next year or the year after.”

“This was the first series in four years where I couldn’t control my emotions,” said the normally stonefaced Bryan Trottier, who beat Andy Moog with one of the three quick strikes in the first period. John Tonelli and Mike Bossy. with his 69th career playoff goal (third all-time), got the others.

The Oilers fought back with two in the middle session, in the first and last minutes, by Jari Kurri and Mark Messier. But Ken Morrow, who scored five goals in regular-season and three vs. the Oilers, put it away with his second empty-net goal of the final series.

To the strains of We Are the Champions by the rock group Queen, the Islanders a took 540-foot victory parade around the rink, with captain Denis Potvin clutching the 32-pound Stanley Cup, which cost $48 to buy in the late 19th Century and is now insured for $60,000. It was their fourth in a row, tying the 1976-79 Montreal Canadiens.

The series had a little bit of everything for the fan. Except goals for the Oilers. They went in averaging 5.3 goals a game, a team that had strangled the stuffed-shirt, defensive mentality in the last few years. And suddenly, they were collared with just six in four games over one week.

“I never thought their defencemen were so good, but they clear guys out of the play, and Smith always got a good look at the puck. And he seemed to stop everything he could see,” said Oilers winger Dave Lumley.

“It just never happened this year. We’ve always scored goals,” said Messier. who blew a 30-footer over Smith’s glove for his first goal of the playoff. “We got stoned in the first game in Edmonton, and it seemed to throw us off. I think if we’d scored three or four goals that night, we would have relaxed more, but we didn’t and we started pressing. We made plays we normally wouldn’t.”

And when they did break through the snow fence in front of Smith, who won the Conn Smythe trophy (for his play and for the best acting job of the playoffs on Glenn Anderson) it seemed that at the last second it always hit a skate or a stick.

The Isles got their first goal off Moog’s stick, with the Oilers goalie trapped behind the net.

“They didn’t create anything tonight, but just took advantage of our mistakes. Nobody worked that hard on their goals. I miss the puck on one, one of our guys (Paul Coffey) falls down in the corner on another (Tonelli converting Bob Nystrom’s pass),” said Moog.

Down 3-0, Oilers could have had a white-towel ceremony in their bathhouse between periods but refused to surrender. They struggled back, only to watch in dismay as Morrow put them out of their misery with a 70-footer.

“I didn’t watch.” said Moog. “When that one went in said Isles’ coach Al Arbour, it was like a 100. pound weight had been lifted off my head.”

— Jim Matheson

From left, New York Islanders goalie Billy Smith blocks the goal as Edmonton Oilers forward Pat Conacher is tied up by Islanders defenceman ken Morrow as Oilers’ Pat Hughes looks on on May 17, 1984, during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at Northlands Coliseum.Colin Shaw /
Edmonton Journal

Oilers 7 Islanders 2

Oilers lead Stanley Cup Final series 3-1

1984: For the second game in a row, the Oilers blitzed New York Islanders goalie Billy Smith — previously difficult for Edmonton to score upon in playoff action — firing six goals past him by the halfway point of Game 4 in a 7-2 win.

The victory put the Oilers one game away from claiming their first Stanley Cup.

The Oilers started scoring early, with Wayne Gretzky scoring his 10th playoff goal — his first ever against the Islanders — past Smith just under two minutes into the first period, with Willy Lindstorm tallying a minute and a half later.

“Without question, it was the most relieved I’ve ever felt,” said Gretzky, who scored four assists a year before in the Islanders’ sweep of the Oilers to claim the Cup. “A lot of questions have been asked by the media and the fans, and maybe even my teammates were starting to question me a little bit. Not verbally but consciously, down deep hoping I’d get a goal.”

Gretzky and Lindstrom would each add another goal, while Mark Messier, Pat Conacher and Paul Coffey rounded out the scoring for the Oilers.

From left, New York Islanders captain Denis Potvin grimaces beside goalie Billy Smith as Edmonton Oilers forward Dave Semenko celebrates a goal on May 17, 1984, during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at Northlands Coliseum.Colin Shaw /
Edmonton Journal

Edmonton dominated the game not just on the scoresheet — they fired 38 shots on Smith to the Islanders’ 21 on counterpart Andy Moog, who started the game in place of Grant Fuhr, who was nursing a sore shoulder — they controlled the action for most of the game.

So suffocating was the Oilers defence that they outshot the Islanders 1-0 in the first 4:34 of the second period even while playing shorthanded, 48 seconds of it five-on-three. Moog didn’t make his first save of the second until stopping centre Butch Goring on a breakaway 12:23 into the middle frame.

“We were really looking forward to the power play between (first and second) periods,” said star Islanders winger Mike Bossy, who was held without a shot in the game.

The entire Oilers team feasted in Game 5, playing their chosen run-and-gun style in front of a sold-out, full-throated crowd at Northlands Coliseum.

Messier, who would win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, feasted on the Islanders’ mistakes and scored the game-winner on a brilliant end-to-end goal on a play which saw him outrace his opponents, pushing the puck ahead and fending off Islanders captain Denis Potvin for the late first-period marker, his eighth goal of the playoffs.

“Mark’s been extraordinary. If anybody is a 100 percenter, he is,” Oilers head coach Glen Sather said.

1987: Wayne Gretzky scored the first goal on Ron Hextall and choreographed the winner by Paul Coffey as the Oilers beat the visiting Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 in the opening game of the Stanley Cup Final.

Glenn Anderson and Jari Kurri scored the others, both assisted by Mark Messier.

The goals by Anderson, Coffey and Kurri came in the first nine minutes of the third period to break a goalie duel between Hextall and Grant Fuhr.”We know they’re a wave type of team, where one line scores and the next one up wants to do the same,” Flyers captain Dave Poulin said after the game. “ We can’t give those guys those shots from that close.”

Edmonton Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr moves to stop the puck as forwards Rexi Ruotsalainen and Mike Krushelnyski tangle with Philadelphia Flyers forward Rick Tocchet on May 17, 1987, during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final at Northlands Coliseum.Mike Pinder /
Edmonton Journal

Anderson scored from the crease, Coffey from 20 feet and Kurri from a face-off circle.

Gretzky and Coffey shone brightest in Game 1. Gretzky had four shots in the first period, five in all and barely missed the net on half-a-dozen others.

“I kind of knew in the warmups he was on. He was really jumping,” Oilers forward Mike Krushelnyski said. “When he plays like that, he just dominates and forces the other team to panic. He gives everyone else room and allows us to play more relaxed.”

Coffey was just as noticeable, playing his soundest Stanley Cup game — at both ends of the rink.

“When Paul plays like that, he’s the best defenceman in all of hockey,” Gretzky said.

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